Mass Effect: Andromeda Will be a Family Affair

Some new information has surfaced about Mass Effect: Andromeda's main character. The game will feature two versions of its protagonist, both of which exist in the game world at the same time – as they’re brother and sister. In an interview with PlayStation Access, creative director Mac Walters gave players a little more information on their new hero, Ryder.

"What a lot of people don't know, little surprise here, is that these two are brother and sister," Walters said. "And they both exist in the game world at the same time. So if you're playing as the sister Ryder, female Ryder, your brother is somewhere in the universe."

Compared to the original Mass Effect trilogy, players could choose if their character was male or female, but they existed as a single hero in the universe. In a previous interview with Polygon, Walters said that BioWare wanted to move away from focusing on a single character.

Walters added that more of the Ryder family has been unveiled in past promotional material. In the E3 2015 reveal trailer, the character in the iconic N7 armour was their father.

"We've got the full Ryder family full sort of now revealed," Walters said. "We'll do names and things in the future as well."

9 September 2016, 12:38 PMReply to Nick2016NZI've never played a previous Mass Effect game but I'm definitely keen on playing Andromeda. Anyone know if the story will be impacted for me by not having played the previous games?

Not really, I don't think. You could get a pretty good run-down online, covering what happened in all three games too, if that was your thing. It's taking place in another galaxy too, so it looks like they're distancing themselves from the core games.